Never Gonna Give You Up, Never Gonna Let You Down
by Skarrow
Summary: Because it is only in this unique, one-in-a-million timeline of timelines that Chrom's answer was acceptable.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N:** I don't own Fire Emblem Awakening or any of its characters.

This fic was written for my friends who each requested a FE story about gore, Grima, Chrom/Avatar, and timelines. I am too lazy to write four different stories, so I just combined all of that stuff into one! Despite the rick rolling title, this fanfic isn't intended to be funny (although I admit I was laughing myself when I wrote this because I'm weird that way). This will be very short, probably two or three chapters.

Rated **M** for **M**ental. And **M**essed up.

* * *

"I know you're there. Why don't you make it easier for the both of us and come out?"

Chrom takes a deep breath and slowly emerges from his hiding spot behind a collapsed pillar. Even before turning around, he can tell that she is surprised to see him in the flesh. He is the _last_ person she is expecting to be here, of all places. He should be with his precious vigilante group and rallying his soldiers, not skulking around the heart of enemy territory all alone.

"...What? _You_?"

These words are spoken with a voice that Chrom knows very well. It is the voice that guides the Shepherds to victory, the voice that pulled him out from the deep, dark lake of despair he'd thrown himself into when his sister died, the voice that compels him to keep moving forward despite all of his hardships. True, the voice is somewhat quieter, rougher than usual, but there is no mistaking it: the voice is _hers_. So is the hair, the eyes, the face, everything... everything is just as he remembers. It makes his breathing a little easier, and he offers her small smile.

"I was wondering what fool would dare brave the Table alone. Do you have a death wish, Son of Naga?"

Illuminated by the strange glow of energy emanating from the sacrificial altar a few paces behind her, he sees nothing out of the ordinary about the tactician; she is scrutinizing him the same way she scrutinizes battlefields and enemies and strangers, just the way she always had. Nothing resembling what those so-called legends foretold. Nothing like what Validar and the Grimleal had been glorifying over and over. The harbinger of destruction? Naga's equal? A great dragon of immense power that goes beyond human understanding? Chrom wasn't seeing it.

All he could see was her.

Her.

Any remaining traces of doubt in his heart is vanquished, and his resolve strengthens.

"I've come to fulfill our promise," he says simply. "Wherever you are, we'll be together."

His words make her pause.

"Not Robin, but... 'me'? You wish to be with 'me'?"

He can see that, on the surface, she is stunned. Because he has known her for over two years, he is adept at discerning her feelings as they flit across her face but right now she is completely frozen, stoic; he doesn't have an inkling to what kinds of thoughts are running through her mind at this moment. He stands absolutely still, and the smile never drops from his face.

"...I understand now," she says out loud thoughtfully. "_There is someone for me_."

"That's right. And now that you understand it, let us be two halves of the same whole, as we swore to each other."

An eerie grin spreads across her face.

"You are a strange man, indeed... I don't trust you, but I'm curious."

She moves towards him, her face once again unreadable.

Perhaps this is what makes Chrom feel like he is talking to a stranger - but this is irrelevant.

She stops right in front of him, the smile on her face growing wider.

"I'll grant your desire."

Written in Ylisse's older history books is the tale of Exalt Chrom when he was still a prince, and the militia he led against Mad King Gangrel; his heroics in Valm against Walhart the Conqueror; his struggles against a powerful dragon who had the strength to destroy the entire world.

This is not that story.

* * *

_To be continued in the next chapter_


	2. Chapter 2

**Trigger Warning:** Gore

* * *

Despite the less-than-optimal lighting of Grima's Table, the young princess and her companions easily recognizes the faces and forms of her beloved brother and the Shepherds' tactician as they approached.

"C-Chrom?! Robin?!" Lissa shrieks, startled from the pair's sudden appearance before her. Her worries instantly vanish, and it their place was a wave of relief at seeing her two favorite people in the whole world safe and sound. She grins at them, never noticing the way Henry, Gaius, Sumia, Libra and Nowi had frozen stiff from apprehension. "What... just where have you two been this whole time, huh?! Everyone's been searching for you all day!"

Chrom's face is somber, and he looks a little stiff as he hovers just a bit behind Robin. Robin herself is much more relaxed, and she offers a small smile in response to Lissa's complaints and demands.

Lissa made to run up to them, healing staff at the ready just in case they were wounded but is abruptly yanked back by the sleeve of her dress, her back thumping quite solidly against somebody's armor.

"Ow!"

"Don't get any closer to them, my lady," Libra cautions, warily eying the pair who still hadn't moved from where they stood. The other Shepherds stands absolutely still, and the tension in the airs is thick.

Lissa is confused. "Huh? Why? We haven't seen them in over a day, and we aren't even going to go and reunite with them properly?"

"...Hey, Blue." Gaius steps forward until he's right next to Libra, his stance deceptively relaxed. The sugar candy in his mouth clicks audibly against his teeth as he says, "You've been gone for quite a long time, but you look perfectly fine. I take it that Aversa wasn't all that strong as she made herself out to be?"

Chrom remains stoic. He doesn't seem to be looking at them. Robin replies in his stead, "She was a sly enemy, a skilled tactician in her own right but we managed to come out safe."

"Really now? Then I assume you ended up crossing paths with Lon'qu and his group, since they decided to track down Aversa at the west tower in order to find you."

Lissa gasps aloud. "Hey, Gaius! I hope you aren't implying what you think you're implying!" Now that she could actually see Gaius up close, she could see the manic desperation she saw in his eyes. Lissa recoils from shock.

Gaius frowns. "Don't get me wrong - I just want to track down the dastard who killed Maribelle. That's all."

About half an hour earlier, Lissa's group had reached the very top of the tower that Lon'qu and his companions had decided to explore in search for Chrom, Robin or even Aversa. They had failed to meet the other Shepherds at the eastern entrance at the promised time, so Frederick had suggested splitting up to find them.

The scene Lissa and the others had walked into was unimaginable; truly, something born from the darkest depths of a nightmare. There was a design painted on the stone wall: it was an exact copy of the strange purplish tattoo of eyes on the back of Robin's right hand but larger, stretching from the floor to the high ceiling. On each "eye" was a body, crucified to the wall with long, iron shafts staked into the arms and legs. Their stomachs slashed open and stained dark red, the white bone and fleshy innards practically bursting out.

It was Panne, Stahl, Lon'qu, Maribelle, Gregor and Ricken, their faces frozen in pain and anguish. Blood was still leaking out from their hands, feet, mouths and abdomens, oozing down all over the mark of Grima and giving it an even more chilling appearance. Out of all of them, Maribelle's appearance was the worst - upon her porcelain face were twin streaks of crimson, dripping from two holes where her eyes used to be.

Lissa dropped her staff and turned her gaze away, but it was too late - the image of her fellow Shepherds, of her best friend, Maribelle was all her mind's eye could show her. She was the one with proper medical training in her group but she didn't dare take a step deeper inside that putrid-smelling chamber, and she didn't have the strength to walk right up to them and prod their already abused bodies just to establish the way they died. Luckily Libra was there, and while he was more of a priest and a fighter than a healer, he had enough knowledge of human physiology to do Lissa's work for her. Henry, the morbidly-curious dark mage, tagged along with him.

The princess did not remove her hands from her eyes, but she could still hear everything.

"Nooo! _This can't be real_!" Sumia cried from somewhere beside Lissa, collapsing into incoherent sobs. "No, no, no, NO!"

"...Whoa. Six murders at once, and carried out in an unusually elaborate manner, complete with Grimleal imagery to mark the spot! Someone had a real BLOODY time with the setup, it seems," Henry sing-songed, confirming Libra's deductions loud enough for everyone to hear.

At those words, Sumia cried harder. Nobody else dignified his observation with a reply. Libra had already begun praying quietly to Naga for their comrades' souls.

When a couple of minutes passed, Henry piped up again, "But something's a little strange about this! When you kill somebody and you want to get away with it, you'd hide the body! So the positioning of the bodies and the mark of Grima might mean that our friends were either used as sacrifices for something, or to scare us. Also... hey, Libra?"

"Is there something I can help you with?" Libra spoke, momentarily interrupting his chanting.

"I'm a dark mage so I'm familiar with cadavers... but as a priest and a healer, why don'tcha tell everybody why there is so much blood coming out of their bodies right now?" Henry suggested cheerfully. "It would be a lot more believable if you said it, not me."

"..."

"W-what is he talking about, Libra?" Nowi stammered, her first words in what seemed like ages. Even she was deeply affected by this horror.

Libra exhaled sharply. "...I'm afraid to say that it suggests that they were... still alive when they were crucified."

Lissa suddenly had another strong urge to throw up, and judging by the sound of the war monk's voice he shared the sentiment. Sumia, who had finally calmed down somewhat broke down into wailing sobs once again. Henry kept chuckling to himself about something. And Gaius-

Gaius hadn't moved or said a thing since their little search party had stumbled across the corpses of their friends. Lissa couldn't possibly imagine how he must be feeling at this very moment - Maribelle was his wife, and they had been expecting a child. She was only a little over a month in, but they had been so excited...

Lissa knew she would never forget what she'd seen today. It would haunt her every waking moment; she empathized with her friends, who were equally disturbed by the manner of Maribelle's and everyone else's death (even Henry).

Yeah, she understands what they were going through... but that didn't justify accusing her brother and Robin for their deaths! Nothing could possibly justify putting them under suspicion! It's impossible!

"Where were you two at the time of Maribelle's death?!" Gaius' voices rises a full octave. "Do you have an alibi?!"

"...Alibi?" Robin repeats the word slowly, the smile on her face growing wider and wider. "An alibi, you say? How quaint."

"_So it really was you all along_! _I'll kill you_!" The thief screams, drawing his sword in one fluid motion. Behind him, Sumia already has her lance at the ready, Nowi is preparing to transform at any moment, and the tips of Henry's fingers are crackling with power.

"B-b-but...!" Lissa struggles to free herself from Libra's grasp but he stubbornly refuses to let go. "What... what's going on?! Are you guys really responsible for their deaths?! Chrom, please explain!" She reaches out for her brother beseechingly, but Robin blocks her view of him. "Answer me, Chrom! _Chrom_!"

There was just no way.

There was just no way her own brother murdered their friends in cold blood like that...! She wouldn't believe that... she wouldn't accept it!

Robin's smile disappears, and she closes her eyes.

"You don't need to answer her. You were only following after me."

Chrom pauses for a split second before he relents with a small nod.

"...I understand. I will obey you, and remain silent."

The battle that followed was utterly onesided: Gaius was the first to charge in, blinded by rage and sorrow, and Robin simply blasted him away with a flick of her wrist. Nowi unleashed her true manakete form and began her rampage, breathing strong bursts of fire while Sumia rode on her back, guiding Nowi safely through the sharp black thorns that Robin had summoned from the floor to swipe them both down with. What they did not expect was Chrom himself to hop onto Nowi when they hovered too close to ground, Falchion cleanly skewering Sumia through her heart and tossing her away. The dead pegasus knight tumbled downwards through the air until finally making impact on the ground with a sickening, dark red _splat_.

Nowi managed to shake the traitorous prince off her back only to be captured by a pair of those eerie black thorns quickly wrapping themselves around her tail, neck and torso. She valiantly struggled against the restraints, even risking wounding herself in the process by trying to set the thorns on fire, but Robin was bored with toying with the manakete by this point. With a whispered word, the thorns tore Nowi's body apart, and her blood and flesh rained down upon the remaining combatants, drenching their clothes, their hair, the walls and floors.

Libra advanced towards Chrom and swung the blunt side of his axe towards him, hoping to incapacitate him. Chrom dodged and made to stab Libra while he was wide open, but the war monk was more nimble than anyone expected: he manages to sidestep the fatal attack at just the last second. Henry stood a few paces back, skillfully casting three different spells to keep Robin occupied and a curse simultaneously. At the most opportune time he sent the curse towards Libra. Libra suddenly felt a huge surge of physical strength, and ended up outmatching Chrom blow by blow. Chrom wisens up and leads him closer and closer to the wall, allowing Libra to "corner" him until the very last second. He dodged out of the way, and Libra ends up breaking through the wall with his cursed strength, and he tumbles out the hole and falls to his death. Henry is dispatched shortly afterwards, when the thorns wrap around his body and proceed to lift him high up and slam him against the floor, over and over _and over and over_ until his head splits open.

Lissa is trembling hard, clutching her staff in her hands as Chrom approaches her, bloodied holy sword in hand. She stumbles backwards a couple of feet before collapsing onto her knees, her face pale and wet from her tears.

"No... Chrom, no..." She pleads.

He makes no move to kill her. He doesn't have to. Robin is already standing right behind her.

_She is already dead._

Robin thrusts her hand all the way through Lissa's chest, her hand coming out on the other side. Lissa's gasps become short, pained and breathless. Chrom can see the life in his sister's eyes slowly fading out, and she whispers,

"_...C-Chrom... you... w-why...?_"

before Robin pulls her hand back out, the princess' heart still beating within her palm. Robin studies the heart she'd harvested with a curious look for a few seconds before crushing it within her fingers. Lissa's body drops to the floor at Chrom's feet like a rag doll.

"...I'm sorry, Lissa," Chrom says quietly, even though he knows she can no longer hear him. He swallows the lump in his throat. "Right now, I'm not the brother that loves you."

"That's right," Robin purrs. "You're not the Son of Naga any longer. You are simply... Chrom."

Chrom does not move an inch when she reaches up and flicks away a piece of flash in his blue hair. When their gazes meet, he smiles fondly at her.

"Yes. And I offer my name to you."

Robin stares at him, stunned for a few moments before laughing really hard.

"Ahahahaha! I can't believe it, you said those words with a face that couldn't hope to kill an insect! And yet, at the same time you can be such a ruthless man..."

Robin strokes Chrom's face with... affection?

...

No.

No, it couldn't be, Chrom reminds himself.

Because Grima does not 'love'.

Grima only 'destroys'.

"...Yes, but I don't dislike this weak side to you, for some reason," Robin cooed.

* * *

_To be continued in the next chapter_


End file.
